Corpus Delicti (David Brunelle Legal Thriller Book 6)

by Stephen Penner

  Brunelle looked up at the three-story-tall warehouse as he walked through the back lot. It was definitely closed. In fact, it was abandoned. Well, abandoned might be a strong word. It was Seattle after all, not Detroit. But it was vacant. Several commercial ‘For Sale’ signs were posted on the sides and windows. Brunelle wondered absently how difficult it might be to lease a warehouse on the waterfront in a fishing district. That had to be a small market of potential renters. A place like that might sit empty for months, even years. Suddenly, he was glad he was a prosecutor again and not a commercial fisheries real estate agent.

  As he approached the far end of the parking lot, he was not at all surprised to see that it was in fact fenced off from its neighbors. It was a short enough fence though, with no razor wire on top, so he stopped for a moment to consider whether he should try to climb over it. He looked down. Chen was right: he did always wear a suit. He didn’t relish climbing a chain link fence in a coat and tie. He scanned for other options. To his surprise, he found one.

  There was a section where the fence had been pulled away from the fence-pole. It led into a darkened, lightly wooded area. Based on his location, Brunelle was pretty sure Ballard Way would be on the other side of it. His suit would probably fare better pushing through some thin trees than getting snagged on the top of a chain link fence.

  He pulled the curled fence section back with a metallic rattle and stepped into the dark. He only hoped he’d gotten out of the way in time to let Montero finish the operation. He suddenly let himself get excited again. If they had followed Brown, that meant the ruse had worked. Maybe the cops would catch Brown red-handed, digging up the shallow grave he’d used to conceal Amy Corrigan’s body.

  Or, Brunelle realized as he pushed past another sapling and into a small clearing, maybe he would be the one to catch Brown red-handed.

  Kenny Brown looked up from where he had just unearthed what was nauseatingly clear was Amy Corrigan’s arm. Several months concealed under high-water-table soil had managed to liquefy most of the flesh into a muddy gelatin. Brunelle had just enough time to notice that Amy’s metal bracelet hadn’t decomposed and to consider that the gelatin would still have Amy’s DNA in it. Then Kenny Brown dropped his shovel and pulled out his .45 semi-auto.

  “You!” Brown yelled. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Under different circumstances, Brunelle might have tried a witty rejoinder like, ‘I was just about to ask you the same thing.’ But confronted with the smell of Amy’s rotten corpse and the sight of Brown’s leveled handgun, Brunelle did the only thing that made sense. He turned and ran.

  The shot was louder than he expected somehow. It was more like a stabbing in his ears than an actual noise. Pain rather than sound. But it was nothing compared to the pain that tore through his left thigh as the bullet ripped through his leg. He fell face first into the mud, unable to move and certain he was going to die.

  He waited for a second shot, but it didn’t come. Instead, he lay in the dark, feeling the blood pump from his leg with every heartbeat. Brown must have fled. He knew enough from reading medical and autopsy that he’d been hit in the artery. Some fucking artery in the thigh whose name he couldn’t quite remember. But it was big and his heart was pumping blood through it directly into the mud beneath him.

  He reached down, gritting his teeth against the fire in his leg and the dizziness in his head, and pulled the phone from his pocket. He tapped the screen and scrolled to the phone app. Chen was the last one to call him. He could just call him back. And that’s when his phone battery gave out.

  His phone died.

  Brunelle closed his eyes, laid his face back into the mud, and prepared to do the same.

  EPILOGUE

  When Brunelle woke up, he was in a hospital bed. His mouth was dry. There was an I.V. stuck into the back of his hand. His leg hurt like hell.

  And Chen was across the room, sitting in a chair, reading a paperback.

  Brunelle swallowed, painfully, and tried to speak. “Larry?” he croaked.

  Chen jumped to his feet, dropping the book on the floor. “Dave! Dave, are you okay?”

  Brunelle squinted against the fluorescent lights and scanned his surroundings. “I guess not. What the hell happened?”

  “You got shot,” Chen answered. “Brown shot you in the leg. But we caught him. When they heard the shot, Montero and the others were on him like stink on shit.”

  Brunelle started to remember. “A—Amy?”

  “We found the body,” Chen confirmed. “Brown is done. Grissom declared a mistrial and he’s getting arraigned this afternoon on attempted murder.”

  Brunelle was still groggy. “Only attempted?”

  Chen laughed slightly. “For you, dummy. He’s going down on murder one for Amy now for sure. You did it.”

  Brunelle closed his eyes and leaned back into his pillow. “Good,” he half-whispered.

  “You lost a lot of blood, buddy,” Chen told him. “You’re lucky we found you so quick.”

  Brunelle nodded slightly, but didn’t open his eyes. “Thanks.”

  “Hold on,” Chen said. “There’s somebody else who’ll want to see you’re okay.”

  Brunelle nodded again, eyes still closed. A moment later he heard Kat’s voice. “Hey, you.”

  Brunelle’s eyes flew open. Kat and Chen were on either side of his bed.

  “You’re supposed to let the cops get shot at,” she joked. “I don’t want you ending up on my examining table.”

  Brunelle managed a smile. “You know Larry can’t do anything right. He needs a little help from his friends.”

  Kat nodded, then reached out and took Brunelle’s hand. “We all do.”

  Brunelle was exhausted. His leg hurt. He was still trying to remember everything that had happened. But he squeezed Kat’s hand. “Friends?” he asked.

  Kat nodded. “Of course,” she answered. “We’ll always be friends.”

  Brunelle leaned back and closed his eyes. That was good enough for him.

  END

  THE DAVID BRUNELLE LEGAL THRILLERS

  Presumption of Innocence

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #1)

  Homicide prosecutor David Brunelle faces the most difficult case of his career. An innocent young girl is murdered in a heinous, unforgivable way. The only evidence against the killer is the full confession of his accomplice—another young girl he also victimized. But the accomplice is charged with the murder as well, which means she has the right to remain silent. And she’s so scared of the killer, she refuses to take a deal to testify against him. Brunelle can’t just let the murderer walk, but how can he get a conviction when he has no admissible evidence and the killer is protected by the Presumption of Innocence?

  Tribal Court

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #2)

  A man is murdered in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. The killer is caught just blocks away, blood still on his hands. When it’s discovered that both killer and victim belong to the same Native American tribe, the tribe asserts jurisdiction and homicide D.A. Dave Brunelle has to prosecute the case in their Tribal Court. It’s bad enough when the defense attorney claims the killing was justified under the ancient custom of ‘blood revenge.’ It gets worse when blood revenge turns into a blood feud. The bodies start piling up and it looks like Brunelle may be next. Can he stay alive long enough to win the case?

  By Reason of Insanity

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #3)

  Sometimes the easiest cases are the hardest. The defendant absolutely, positively murdered her own mother. She is also absolutely, positively mentally ill. Homicide prosecutor David Brunelle is tasked with holding her responsible despite the best efforts of her defense team, which includes a psychologist who’s convinced she’s innocent. As the case proceeds, the pressures mount and Brunelle begins to question his own sanity. Will Brunelle crack the case, or will the case crack him?

  A Prosecutor for the Defense

  (Dav
id Brunelle Legal Thriller #4)

  Seattle homicide D.A. David Brunelle has spent his entire career prosecuting criminals. But when his girlfriend, medical examiner Kat Anderson, asks him to go to California to defend her ex-husband on a murder charge, he just can’t say no to her.

  Brunelle has to fight not only his prosecutorial instincts, but also a smooth-talking D.A., an unhelpful detective, and—worst of all—a client who won’t give him a straight answer. As the evidence piles up and the case unfolds, Brunelle waits for the other shoe to drop, but this time the shoe is on the other foot.

  Substantial Risk

  (David Brunelle Legal Thriller #5)

  A sex club. A dead “submissive.” A “dominant” in custody.

  Homicide D.A. Dave Brunelle barely understands the terms. How can he ever hope to understand the bondage subculture well enough to hold a killer responsible for the apparently accidental death of his own girlfriend? Brunelle embarks on a voyage of discovery, both of himself and things he never even knew existed. In so doing, however, he risks losing not only his case, but everything—and everyone—dear to him.

  SHORT STORIES

  FEATURING DAVID BRUNELLE

  (available exclusively for Amazon Kindle)

  Case Theory

  District attorney David Brunelle has a problem: a woman and her child have been murdered, a killer is in custody, but something doesn’t add up. Namely, the bullets. Either the cops botched the crime scene, or there’s more going on than Brunelle knows. He’ll need to figure it out quick, before the defense attorney walks a murderer out the door.

  Beyond A Reasonable Doubt

  A woman is brutally murdered, and it’s district attorney David Brunelle’s job to put the killer away. The defendant fled barefoot, abandoning her shoes in the pool of blood under the victim. It looks like an open-and-shut case, but Brunelle should know better. If he doesn’t figure out the truth—and fast—it’s his blood that might be spilled next.

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Stephen Penner is an attorney, author, and artist from Seattle. He writes a variety of fiction, including thrillers, mysteries, and children’s books.

  His other novels include the Maggie Devereaux paranormal mystery series, starting with Scottish Rite. He also wrote and illustrated the children’s books Katie Carpenter, Fourth Grade Genius and Professor Barrister’s Dinosaur Mysteries.

  For more information, please visit www.stephenpenner.com.